Few hunters ever will have the opportunity to take a lion’s charge in Namibia or stalk a brown bear through an Alaska alder thicket.

But we’ve all felt the pulse-pounding excitement through the medium of film, those magical mystery shows that appear on cable TV. If the action is thick and rich enough, chances are it was Orion Multimedia that took you there.

In just six years, this Littleton-based production company has emerged as the leading producer of made-for-TV field sport programming. During the coming season, Orion – the name is taken from the prominent constellation also called “The Hunter” – will produce 18 separate series, all for the Versus network. Versus, formerly called Outdoor Life Network, is owned and distributed by Comcast.

Offerings range from the dangerous game of Africa and North America to the more prosaic pursuit of birds and other small creatures. What sets Orion apart is the sheer volume and professional nature of its productions.

The company doesn’t hedge on its perceived eminence.

“We started Orion as an antidote to a lot of lousy outdoor television out there. We thought there was a disservice in what a lot of shows were doing. We thought we could do better,” co-founder Chris Dorsey rather magisterially declared.

All of which brings to mind this old bromide: If you can do it, it ain’t bragging. To keep this exalted mission, Orion dispenses crews in combat fashion across the globe year-round.

“It’s almost like a war, with men and equipment marching to the four winds,” said John De Palma, chief operating officer and one of three partners in the enterprise.

From a sparkling 15,000- square foot headquarters in the southwest suburbs decorated with taxidermy and wildlife art, production coordinators dispense guns, cameras and all the assorted paraphernalia needed to produce quality programming. That’s only the tip of the challenge.

“We have to obtain all the essential visas and permits. You can’t believe all the foreign embassies and corrupt governments we have to deal with,” De Palma said.

Orion houses 40 full-time employees in its own building and hires a matching number of freelance videographers and editors to produce the endless volumes of footage that fuels more than 160 separate episodes each year.

“We have a sort of controlled chaos every day,” De Palma said jokingly.

The most successful shows include “Bucks of Tecomate,” “Dangerous Game,” “Winchester Whitetail Revolution” and “World of Beretta.”

What separates Orion from the pack is that each show is made in high definition; the firm boasts 6,000 hours of HD footage, the largest such library in the world. This log often is used to produce commercials, an endeavor that further separates Orion from the standard production house.

Orion was begun by Dorsey and Larry Sletten, who worked in the production of the “World of Ducks Unlimited” show. Dorsey subsequently became editor in chief of Sports Afield magazine, where he witnessed the drift of outdoor advertising from print to electronic.

“It was pretty clear to me that that the future would be in electronic media,” Dorsey said of a reunion with Sletten that formed Orion. “It’s a dynamic landscape.”

Just how dynamic will be revealed in Orion’s planned expansion to include fishing shows and an even more ambitious shift into adventure programming. Through it all, the larger goal remains the same.

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